Chapter 38: Escaping with One's Life

  In the dark night, Qing Xia was like a civet cat, quietly and stealthily approaching Yongle Gate. She picked up a stone and threw it into the nearby bushes with a "thud".

  "Who goes there?" The two gate guards were suddenly startled, cautiously raising their long spears and exchanging a glance. One of them carefully walked towards the direction of the bushes, while the other remained on guard at his original position.

  That man's figure had just hidden in the bushes, and Qing Xia suddenly sprang up like a ferocious beast, pouncing on the remaining guard. In an instant, the guard only saw a black shadow swooping down from above, and before he could even see what it was, Qing Xia had already dropped down from mid-air, her five fingers shaped like claws, her fingertips precisely pressing on his neck's major artery. A wave of dizziness and oxygen deprivation later, the man had softly fainted away.

  He promptly supported the body of that guard and leaned him against the pillar of the corridor, without even having time to hide. Another guard came over.

  He grabbed the body of the fainted guard and hid behind him. The night was pitch black, and the lights in this area were not bright, after all, it was just a small palace gate, which did not lead to the outside of the imperial palace or the harem, but directly to the emperor's morning court. If it were before, it would have been an important place, but since the previous emperor ascended to the throne, the number of times he held morning court added up to less than ten days, so this place gradually fell into disuse. On the other hand, the East Palace was bustling with people every morning, and had become a new trend in Southern Chu State.

  "There's nothing going on, I'm saying you're just being too cautious."

  The guard muttered to himself as he returned to his post, leaning against the door pillar and lazily letting out a breath. He whispered, "This night is really damn cold, tomorrow we're off duty, let's go to Mantang Spring together and have some fun." Seeing that his companion didn't react, the guard couldn't help but feel suspicious, turned his head to look, and suddenly cursed loudly: "Damn it, you little brat fell asleep quickly. Don't sleep anymore, aren't you just waking up? Now it's my turn to sleep." As he spoke, he reached out to push the other guard's shoulder.

  "Bang!" With a slight push, the sleeping guard's body instantly fell to the ground. The young soldier widened his eyes, seemingly unable to react in time. In just an instant, he saw Qing Xia hiding behind the guard.

  "Ah…… sorry about that." With a swift and powerful movement, the unfortunate soldier fell to the ground in an instant. From his pocket, he pulled out three silver needles, which were the items Qing Xia had brought from Lan Ting Hall, and had been preparing for this moment. Accurately targeting the acupoints, the three silver needles stabbed into the back of the soldier's neck.

  This move was learned by Qing Xia when he was in the modern era with a pharmacist in 11th place. At that time, the Military Intelligence Bureau did not spare any effort to invite this poor mountainous area's barefoot doctor out of the mountains. The main reason is that this doctor's medical skills are not very good, but he has a brilliant acupuncture hypnosis technique, and his hands are incredibly skilled. No matter which part of the body, as long as three silver needles go down, you will forget everything within 15 minutes. A colleague from the Military Intelligence Bureau paid the price of losing more than ten memories after paying out, and finally bribed the old Chinese doctor's wife with a bag of white flour to bring this generation of gods out of the mountains.

  Qing Xia was never talented in medicine, only learning the superficial skill of recognizing acupoints on the back of the neck. Yet this superficial skill ended up saving Qing Xia's life countless times. As a special agent, Qing Xia wasn't an assassin and would not kill indiscriminately unless absolutely necessary. After taking care of the two guards, Qing Xia propped their bodies against the doorframe, making it look like they were just sleeping.

  She rushed through the palace gate and headed straight for the Wenwu Hall, her plan was very detailed. After arriving at the Wenwu Hall, she stole a set of third-grade guard uniforms, mixed into the Imperial City Forbidden Army, waited until dawn, followed Chu Li's personal guards out of the city. Then hide in the Military Camp for a few days, and then find another way to escape from South Chu.

  Although this is the most adventurous way, it is also the most effortless method. Even if Chu Li receives news that Zhuang Qing Xia has escaped, he will inevitably search the entire city or chase in the direction of Qi Guo. He would never expect that the person he is looking for is right in his own camp. Once the wind dies down, Qing Xia will have long since escaped. No matter how capable Chu Li is, he will never find her again in this lifetime.

  In the guard's bedroom in the Wenwu Grand Hall, he stole a set of clothes with ease. As a special agent, one of the most important survival rules is to have superb makeup skills, so that you can cleverly escape at any time and place with various identities. Even without modern advanced makeup tools, Qing Xia quickly got rid of his original appearance using primitive methods.

  Pulling her scalp tight, raising her eyebrows high, drawing her eyes with a pencil, changing the shape of her eyes, adding a beard, covering up her lip shape, applying silver powder to her face, making her cheekbones appear higher, adding shoulder pads inside her guard uniform, intentionally wrapping a thick belt around her waist, slightly increasing the height of her boots, and finally cutting off her long hair that reached her knees, leaving some scattered on her shoulders, barely reaching her hips. She quickly tied up her remaining hair into a bun, securing her bangs in place, revealing her blackened forehead. With a sharp dagger in hand, she looked like a rough and coarse soldier, not a single hint of femininity left.

  "Form up, Your Highness is leaving the palace!" A loud shout suddenly came from outside, and the Imperial City guards who were sleeping woke up instantly. Qing Xia hid in the dark shadow of the lamp fire, watching a scene of naked men waking up for free, with countless sturdy men putting on their clothes and pants in front of her, quite spectacular.

  In less than a stick of incense, everyone had formed up. Qing Xia blended into the crowd and quickly ran to the square, waiting for the arrival of the future king of Nan Chu.

  Modern science has proven that the moment a person wakes up from sleep is when their defensive capabilities are at their weakest. As everyone's eyes were still blurry with sleep, no one noticed the sudden addition of a short but sturdy little guard standing there looking bored. Most people's eyes were focused on this side.

  "Huh? You're not from our squad, you're from the second squad, aren't you? You're standing in the wrong place." A soldier with a thick beard suddenly spoke up.

  A lean guard next to him kindly pointed in a direction hundreds of meters away, "The second group is over there."

  "Oh, thank you, big brother." Changing his tone, he spoke in a hoarse voice to Qing Xia: "I'm from the Green Camp Army of the Outer City, just transferred to the Imperial Guard yesterday night. All of you were asleep, so I didn't dare disturb you."

  "Ah, it's the Green Camp soldiers from outside the city!" Lian said loudly, suddenly raising his voice and shouting: "Yang Feng, your Green Camp soldiers have arrived again!"

  A young man in a suit of dark blue armor turned around instantly, with sword-shaped eyebrows and starry eyes, his entire body exuding a sense of precision and sharpness. His tiger-like eyes sparkled with a smile as he walked towards the people with whiskers on their chins, giving them a slight smile.

  Qing Xia's hands and feet suddenly turned cold, and he secretly thought that this year was indeed unlucky. Yang Feng's desire to rise through the ranks and get rich was extremely urgent, and seeing that he wasn't a member of the Green Camp Army, he didn't immediately expose him. If these people only thought of themselves as a guard who wanted to join the Imperial Guard and had gone mad, it would be fine, even if they thought of themselves as a spy. What he feared most was that this man would see through his true face, startling Chu Li, and making it even more difficult for him to escape from the Cold Palace in the future.

  No matter how hard I thought, I never expected that someone could actually rise from being a lowly soldier in the outer city's Green Camp to becoming an imperial guard in the Forbidden City. I really don't know what kind of opportunity this kid had, but he rose up so quickly.

  The young soldier's eyebrows slightly furrowed, his eyes flashing with a sharp glint, as he walked step by step towards Qing Xia, stopping one meter away. His mouth was tightly pursed, his head slightly tilted to the side, looking at Qing Xia with a hint of puzzlement, his hand involuntarily tightening its grip on the knife. Although others didn't notice Yang Feng's abnormal behavior, Qing Xia was fully focused on observing his reaction, and couldn't let go of such an obvious emotional fluctuation.

  Slightly bend your knees, and you can quickly draw the dagger at the fastest speed. Your eyes drift around, paying attention to the direction of the Imperial Guard Captain. If exposed, you can only kill the highest-ranking Imperial Guard Captain here at lightning speed, create chaos, and then think of a way to escape.

  Just as he was about to speak, a unique smell suddenly rushed into Yang Feng's nostrils. His expression changed instantly, his eyebrows raised, and he looked at Qing Xia from head to toe with a frown.

  "Yang Feng, what are you looking at? How come, just because you jumped three levels and came to the Imperial Guard to eat imperial rations, others aren't allowed to have good fortune too?" A palm slapped onto Qing Xia's back, and even though Qing Xia was skilled in martial arts, he almost got internal injuries from the slap.

  Yang Feng burst out laughing and pulled Qing Xia to his side, saying: "What did Big Brother Hong say? Our Green Camp has someone with a promising future, I'm delighted. But this kid is usually so frail, I really didn't think he could pass the test and enter the Imperial Guard. Brother, you must have suffered a lot."

  "What? You know each other?" Lao Hu Zi said.

  "Of course," Yang Feng blocked Qing Xia in front of him, smiling and saying: "We are brothers who fight on the same street, don't look at him being small, he has the most ghostly ideas. Now that you're here, from now on you'll sleep in the same room as me."

  Qing Xia knew at this time that Yang Feng had already recognized himself, but he didn't expose him. He couldn't help feeling a wave of emotion in his heart, although he didn't know how the other man had seen through his flawless disguise.

  "Right, little brother, I'm Hong Dayuan. I've been in the Imperial Guard for ten years and everyone here calls me Big Brother Hong. What's your name? How should we address you from now on?"

  "My surname is Xia," Qing Xia replied in a rough voice, slightly raising an eyebrow and looking at the man standing in front of him. Since he had already discovered it, there was no need to hide anything anymore. "My single name is Qing."

  "Then I'll call you Xiao Xia from now on." Hong Dà Yuán chuckled in a deep voice.

  At this time, the captain of a team of imperial guards suddenly rode forward and shouted loudly to the team of over 400 people: "The prince is coming soon, everyone shut up and line up."

  The team stood in unison, Yang Feng's expression unchanged as he pulled Qing Xia along, walking slowly to an inconspicuous spot. At this moment, three loud gong sounds rang out, and on the main road, a magnificent golden dragon carriage slowly emerged.

  The curtain opened, and Chu Li emerged wearing a silver-white armor, with a precious sword at his waist. His face was as calm as water, and he walked out in big strides. A guard knelt down carefully on the ground, holding the reins of a pure black horse without any miscellaneous hairs. Chu Li grasped the reins, flipped over and got on the horse, with neat and agile movements, proudly sitting on the horse.

  "Long live your majesty!" The imperial guards shouted in unison, kneeling on one knee. Hundreds of people from the first and second teams shouted together, with an astonishing momentum.

  Chu Li's eyes seemed like solid ice, and the corners of his eyes inadvertently glanced over at the Imperial Guard. Although he knew that Chu Li couldn't possibly see him, Qing Xia still felt as if there were thorns on his back, making his whole body feel uncomfortable. Yang Feng slightly turned his head to the side, then quietly moved his body to block Qing Xia from view.

  Chu Li raised his hand and waved it, saying in a deep voice: "Leave the palace!"

  More than 800 people stood up at the same time, turned over and jumped onto their war horses, following behind Chu Li's back, towards the triple main gate of Donghua Gate, walking out with their heads held high.

  Qing Xia, this imperial spy who was guarded by countless sentries and abandoned concubine of the cold palace, followed behind the person who imprisoned her, riding high on a war horse, with chest out and head held high, walked out of the Chu Palace's grand gate under the gaze of countless eyes!